May 10, 2010
Worried by the confusion that pervades the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the refusal of the erstwhile chairman Professor Maurice Iwu to hand over to the most senior Commissioner Mr. Philip Umeadi, a call has been made to the federal government to arrest him [Iwu] so as to enforce compliance with the presidential directive.
Worried by the confusion that pervades the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the refusal of the erstwhile chairman Professor Maurice Iwu to hand over to the most senior Commissioner Mr. Philip Umeadi, a call has been made to the federal government to arrest him [Iwu] so as to enforce compliance with the presidential directive. The then Acting President Dr. Good Luck Jonathan had an April 27th 2010 directed the erstwhile chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission to proceed on a pre-disengagement leave and to hand over to the most senior Commissioner Philip Umeadi. Umeadi became a national Commissioner in August 2006 and is due to complete his first tenure in August 2011 whereas Prince Adedeji Soyebi was appointed in September 2007.
A democracy inclined and development focused non-governmental organization the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, in a statement by its national coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko condemned the action of the former chairman of the electoral commission for disobeying President Jonathan’s directive to hand over to the most senior commissioner. The Rights group asserted that the refusal of the erstwhile chairman Maurice Iwu to comply with the presidential directive has created a state of instability and organized confusion in the hierarchy of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
HURIWA stated thus; “we are shocked that the directive from a constitutionally recognized and well constituted authority like the office of the president which was written in plain English language could be misinterpreted and flagrantly violated for alleged selfish purposes. The report in the media that Professor Iwu disrespected the directive of the president to hand over to Philip Umeadi and instead allegedly lobbied some Peoples Democratic Party government to convince the president to allow him hand over to prince Adedeji Soyebi, a national commissioner in charge of logistics who is one year junior to Philip Umeadi by way of appointment and assumption of office as national commissioner, amounted to a constitutional breach of the authority of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria enshrined in section 5(1) (a) of the 1999 constitution.”
The Rights group cautioned president Jonathan not to condone this breach of his executive powers by the erstwhile chairman of the electoral commission but to immediately compel Professor Iwu to comply with lawful order to hand over to the most senior commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission because of the bad precedent that the lack of enforcement of the Presidential directive could create in the polity.
HURIWA asserted that the danger in allowing the former chairman of the electoral commission to go Scot free with the current disobedience of the lawful directive of President Jonathan is the institutionalization of impunity and the regime of disrespect to the rule of law.
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